Miriam Allan

“Allan’s voice is light, eminently suited to the chamber format, with a clear and ringing higher register but with an emotional depth and warmth that reaches across to the audience. Her presence onstage is magnetic.”

Australian Stage, 30th March, 2009

Born in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, Miriam has been based in England since 2003. She has been a soloist with leading orchestral and choral organisations all over the world: Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, London Baroque (UK), Les Arts Florissants (France), Auckland Philharmonia (New Zealand), Concerto Copenhagen (Denmark), Il Fondamento (Belgium), Gewandhaus Kammerchor, Leipzig Kammerorchester, Concerto Köln, ChorWerk Ruhr (Germany), Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Chacona and Arcadia (Australia). She has been fortunate to work with many of the finest directors and conductors, including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Laurence Cummings, William Christie and Roy Goodman. She appears on numerous recordings, highlights of which include Pinchgut Opera’s Fairy Queen and Dardanus, The Wonders of the World with Echo du Danube, Mozart’s Requiem with the Leipzig Kammerorchester and Gewandhaus Kammerchor.

In 2009, Miriam completed a concert tour of Australia with Ironwood Ensemble for Musica Viva and returned to Australia for performances of Messiah with the Queensland Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony directed by Stephen Layton in December. After making her debut with Glyndebourne Festival Opera in performances of Purcell’s Fairy Queen in 2009, Miriam continued with that production to Paris, Caen and New York in 2010. Other engagements in 2009 included performances of Israel in Egypt in Germany and Monteverdi’s 6th Book of Madrigals with Les Arts Florissants. In 2011, Miriam performed Monteverdi Madrigals with Les Arts Florissants; returned to Australia for performances with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra of Mozart and Handel; and made her debut with the Bach Collegium Japan, under Masaaki Suzuki. She also performed the role of Costanza in Pinchgut Opera’s production of Vivaldi’s Griselda tocritical acclaim.

Recent concerts include a tour of Monteverdi’s 3rd Book of Madrigals with Les Arts Florissants and performances in Holland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom of Bach, Dowland and Rutter. Her most recent CD of Handel’s Silete Venti and Purcell Songs has just been released on the ABC Classics label along with the live recording of Vivaldi’s Griselda on the Pinchgut LIVE label. In 2013 Miriam appeared with Le Concert d’Astree under Emmanuelle Haïm; tour Monteverdi’s 5th Book of Madrigals with Les Arts Florissants and return to Australia to perform Haydn with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Cavalli with Pinchgut Opera and Messiah with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Collegium Musicum, Perth.